asd and antibiotic prophylaxis

Hi there was wondering if anyone can help with some info,i had an atrial septal defect(hole in upper chambers of heart)repaired nearly two years ago by a transcatheter procedure which placed amplatzer device to seal hole.I also have quite severe ulcerative colitis and i am wondering do i need to be on antibiotic prophylaxis every time i need dental treatment as it can flare up colitis badly.Some people say you need them for life whilst others only for first year after asd repair,can anyone enlighten me,thanks paolo.

Hi, I also have an ASD but i am waiting for the repair. My cardiologist said that prior to the repair i should take antiabiotics for dental but once it is repaired he said you would only have to take antibiotics for 6 months after if you have any dental procedures then you do not need to take anymore for the rest of your life. If you have any valve regurgitation or valve damage then they would ask you to take the antibiotics for life even if the whole is repaired. This is the case for me as i will probably need a valve replacement in the future. But if you don't have those complications with your ASD then you should be good to go. Hope this helps. And just wanted to ask how you have been feeling since your ASD was closed? I am doing horribly now but am hoping this closure of my ASD will help things. Thanks

Hi there born2bwild thanks for the reply,i have heard so many different opinions including doctor's on best practise regarding dental prophylaxis but most dentists over here are very reluctant to go ahead with treatment even on a repaired asd without it,which i can understand due to legal pitfalls.What symptoms are you having with asd i took mini stroke before mine was discovered,are you getting it repaired via transcatheter closure?.

Yes i believe for the dentist he is concerned about legalities but the doctors don't seem to believe you need it once the ASD is 6 months post closure. I have had 2 mini strokes that they can go back and determine now. Both happened within the last 2 years. At the time these occured i was told i suffered from severe anxiety and there was nothing wrong with me. I never imagined it was anything to do with my heart but i certainly knew i didn't feel well and i never believed it was anxiety but i just couldn't get anyone to take me seriously so i just stopped going to the doctor. Over the last five years i was never offered any tests other than medication to calm you down and anti depressants which actually made my heart race even faster than it already was. When i told him that i was having bad chest pain he wanted me to see a shrink, thats when i stopped going to the doctor at all (about 1 year ago) over the next 10 months i continued to feel worse and at christmas we traveled by airplane ( 10 hour flight) things got really bad as i guess i was in congestive heart failure. These were all the same symptoms i had been complaining about except 100 times worse. My initial symptoms started about 15 years ago with lightheadedness, dizzy, sometimes pass out,short of breath on excertion only, but as time went on the episodes became more often and i was increasinly SOB and i would retain water alot but never anything that the doctors felt was significant. I was very tired and just couldn't do the things i used too, i am only 41 and had a hard time excepting this was all due to anxiety as i had been very active. For the last 3 years i had been having the palpatations and flutters that just got to be constant and passing out and chest pain and migraine headaches like i have never had before. After the flying episode i started to swell bad and cough and i couldn't breath when i would lye down. I could hardly get my breath but for 2 months my doctor told me i had bronchitis and gave me antibiotics. He told me i picked up some kind of bug on vacation. this is why i stopped going to this guy as he never once listened to my chest or anything even though i told him my heart was racing and feeling weird. I waited it out another month to give the damm antibiotics a good chance but my husband took me to emergency one night and they took one look at me and asked me if i had any heart conditions? They did an EKG wich showed atrial fib and a chest xray showed my heart was very enlarged. From there i had other tests that showed the whole in my heart and the valve damage. I have developed pulmonary hypertention as a result of not having the hole closed sooner which at this time is a big problem. I have had 2 cardioversions for atrial fib and may need a valve relpacement but he wants to do the closure first. It will be done by cathater using the amplatzer devise